[MCaver]

Now that my job hunt is over (Yes!) I'm planning a 4-5 day trip down to the redwoods in California this week. Anyone been and have advice to share? I'm planning to do a bit of hiking/photography and would like trail or general area recommendations if anyone has them.

[Sore Feet]

Oooh, you MUST do Fern Canyon in Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park (just south of the main part of the NP). The trail goes right up the creekbed for about 1/3 mile +\-, in between 75 foot vertical walls covered head to toe with ferns. It. is. awesome. I remember seeing a couple other similar canyons on the drive in, but I didn't stop to investigate. I imagine that at this time of year, the creek is probably pretty high, and the seasonal bridges are I'm sure out at the moment, so if you want to see it, you may have to wade (but it shouldn't be more than a foot or so deep). The Ladybird Johnson grove (in the NP) is quite impressive too. Also, don't follow 101 once you reach the northern part of the park, it was re-routed recently and doesn't go through the parks anymore. Prairie Creek Redwoods SP info: http://www.parks.ca.gov/default.asp?page_id=415 Fern Canyon(Not my pictures btw): http://www.terragalleria.com/parks/np-image.redw1438.html http://www.terragalleria.com/parks/np-image.redw1439.html Really cool gallery from Redwoods I found: http://www.terragalleria.com/parks/np.redwood.all.html

[polarbear]

You might want to spend the evening in Cresecent City and see if you can catch a sunset. That's where I saw the sunset below. For some reason the thing that sticks out in my mind about the Redwoods is the Trees of Mystery.

sunset1

sunset2

bigtree